Tips for beautiful, healthy indoor plants

Our house is full of plants. I never get tired of them and I’m always thinking about new ways of introducing new green touches to decorate our home. As my mum always says: plants make any space better. I can’t agree more: they add life, bring a little bit of nature indoors and clean the air. Besides, taking care of them is utterly relaxing and going to the flower market is my favourite Saturday morning activity. Yep, I’m a granny. #loudandproud!

Trunk, Ikea; Pot: Butlers

While outdoor plants don’t survive more than a fortnight in our balcony (I blame the weather and the pollution), I think we are pretty good with houseplants. Here you have our tips for taking care of your plants and our suggestions about which plants to buy if you want to create your very own indoor garden.

Let’s start with the plants that you can buy if you want something undemanding and easy to grow, which we all want because there are so many complicated things in life already. Zamioculcas, Calatheas or Peace Lilies are fantastic: they basically take care of themselves and they look beautiful. They can be quite big so they are perfect to fill empty spaces and they are my favourite to decorate bigger rooms. Looks for palm plants as well, since they are fun, look lighter and, again, don’t need much attention. Good options are Kentia or Sentry Palms. Of course, succulents (or any plant with fleshy leaves) are also a good call. I’m already thinking about a nice composition with succulents for our hallway! (Exhibit A) Orchids are extravagant but they require patience. Sometimes you get no blooming for a couple of years and other times they bloom twice a year.

Vase: Depot, Vintage cups

Now, our very easy tips to have beautiful and healthy indoor plants:
1. Look carefully for the right place: they need lots of light, but no direct sun. That’s our most important tip. If a plant doesn’t look very nice or healthy, try to change its position. Sometimes they just need to find their place. But of course, avoid heating or air conditioning nearby.

2. Don’t drawn your plants: that’s the most frequent mistake. We water our plants once every two weeks. Of course, if the weather is too warm or the heating is very high, we add more water. The key is to observe the leaves. If they look down, wrinkled or sad, they propably need more water. If they turn yellow, you are watering them too much. The pots are also important: most plants need a container with drainage holes, so water doesn’t stand around their roots and cause rotting.

Pots: Ikea; Dark space behind the plants: our chimney which we never actually use because I’m afraid of fire, but we light lots of candles and it does look pretty nice and cosy

3. Groom and clean: it’s ok if some leaves are dry. It’s the natural process. Just cut dead or yellow leaves, stems that have lost their leaves to the soil line or dead flowers. But don’t over do it because…
4. Let them be: most of the plants you see in these pictures have been with us for more than five years. We take care of them but we don’t over do it. They are living organism and as such they can’t look perfect all the time. Sometimes it all goes a bit crazy and that’s ok. But don’t give up on them!

5. Have fun: I love grouping plants together because they look prettier but it also helps the plants, because that’s the easiest way of adding humidity. We love mixing them with flowers both fresh and dried. Sometimes even fake ones! In fact, most of the time we let fresh flowers dry to create beautiful arrangements. Dry hydrangeas are all over our home! We also love lavender and wheat ear. You can mix them up and play with the compositions. Finally, to make your indoor plants stand out even more, choose nice pots and containers. Our favourites are the ones made with natural materials, but zinc buckets look wonderful as well. It depends on your house decor, of course.

Table and lantern: Ikea (in fact who doesn’t own that table and that lantern?) White pot: Ikea. Yes, again; Zinc bucket: vintage (I just don’t remember where we bought it, so vintage will do)

We hope you’ve found this post interesting and useful and we encourage you to build your indoor garden! In case you are a plant addict like us, do you have any further tips?

Thank YOU for the idea of this post! I was commenting on your post and thinking: welll, I do have something to say about this! My plants looks pretty good… um… And voilà! I do love plants and flowers. Besides, living in this terrible weather indoor plants are the only option!

Thank you for sharing your tips and photos. Plants and flowers really do make a house into a home. After ten years of a plant-less, flowerless home (our dear, newly-departed kitty chewed anything green or flowering, alive, dried, OR plastic!), we love having plants and fresh flowers once again. Long fragrant stems of tuberoses, small bunches of roses, big hydrangea heads or stems of rosemary stuffed in vases … they all add a special feeling to home.

I appreciate your tip on not overwatering your indoor plants. It would seem like finding the right balance and schedule for watering your indoor plants would probably help them be much more healthy. I’m considering getting some plants for my apartment so I’ll have to find out how much you need to water them before I actually choose one.